Carotid body function in health and disease
10.3969/j.issn.1672-8467.2012.01.002
- VernacularTitle:颈动脉体的生理和病理功能
- Author:
Wenlong FENG
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
carotid body;
chemoreceptors;
pathophysiology
- From:
Fudan University Journal of Medical Sciences
2012;39(1):5-11
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Peripheral chemoreceptors in the carotid body play a significant role in the transduction of chemical stimuli in the arterial blood notably hypoxia,hypercapnia and acidosis to the central for eliciting the chemoreflex,which is central to the hypoxic ventilatory response and is also important for the circulatory responses to hypoxia.It is known that interactions between the peripheral and central chemoreceptors are crucial to the magnitude of the reflex response for the ventilatory control.In addition,the carotid chemoreceptor activity contributes to the ventilatory and humoral responses to exercise and also significantly to the ventilatory acclimatization to chronic hypoxia at high altitude.Under diseased conditions,there are augmented chemoreceptor activity and chemoreflex sensitivity in patients with hypertension or sleep-disordered breathing including obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and congestive heart failure and also in experimental animal models mimicking these diseases.Thus,the carotid body functions to maintain the oxygen homeostasis； whereas anomalous carotid chemoreceptor activities associated with diseases could be both adaptive and pathogenic in nature,for which cellular and molecular mechanisms have been proposed for the pathophysiogical consequences.
